© KEYSTONE/AP/Lee Jin-man
North Korea on Thursday fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into Japan’s exclusive economic maritime zone, drawing strong condemnation from the UN. According to the North Korean agency KCNA, it is “a new type” of ICBM, dubbed Hwasong-17.
The shot, personally ordered by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, perfectly hit its target in the Sea of Japan, the state agency said Friday morning. South Korean President Moon Jae-in previously said the projectile launched by Pyongyang was an ICBM.
This is “a break in the suspension of intercontinental ballistic missile launches promised by President Kim Jong-un to the international community”, he lamented. The South Korean military said it responded by firing “missiles from the ground, sea and air” off its coast.
The UN strongly condemns
The UN on Thursday “strongly” condemned the shooting and called on Pyongyang to cease any action deemed “counterproductive” and which stokes “tensions” in Asia. The Security Council is due to meet on Friday at the request of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Albania, Ireland and Norway in the face of this “unambiguous” shooting by North Korea, have said diplomats.
“The launch of a long-range missile runs the risk of an escalation of tensions in the region,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary General António Guterres.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida denounced “a scandalous act”. The North Korean regime “threatens the peace and security of Japan, the region and the international community”, he said from Brussels, where he was for a G7 summit. Mr. Kishida and US President Joe Biden were able to discuss this new crisis on the sidelines of the G7, according to a White House official.
Condemning “strongly” the new shooting, the White House assured that the United States would take “all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American territory, South Korea and Japan”.
Multiple sanctions
The new firing demonstrates that North Korea “continues to prioritize its weapons of mass destruction,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
UN resolutions prohibit North Korea, hit by heavy international sanctions for its nuclear and weapons programs, from testing ballistic missiles. They did not prevent Pyongyang from carrying out a dozen tests of this type of weapon since the beginning of the year.
But it was not until now intercontinental missiles, even if Washington and Seoul suspect the North Korean regime of having tested certain ICBM systems during these launches. Pyongyang carried out three ICBM launches in 2017. The device then tested, the Hwasong-15, was able to reach the United States.
At more than 6000 km altitude
On Thursday, “the ballistic missile flew for 71 minutes and fell around 3:44 p.m. [07h44 en Suisse] in the exclusive economic zone, in the Sea of Japan, regarding 150 km west of the Oshima peninsula,” said the number two of the Japanese Ministry of Defense, Makoto Oniki.
“Since the ballistic missile flew at an altitude of over 6,000 km, much higher than the Hwasong-15 ICBM which was launched in November 2017, today’s one is believed to be a new ICBM.” , he added.
According to Seoul, a missile test by North Korea on March 16 ended in failure, with the projectile exploding in the sky over Pyongyang shortly following being launched from Sunan airport, north of the capital. . The regime has kept silent regarding this event.
Pyongyang “led today’s launch to make up for this failure,” Go Myong-hyun, a researcher at the Asan Institute of Policy Studies, told AFP. Analysts had expected Pyongyang, which will celebrate the 110th birth anniversary of Kim Il-sung, the country’s founder and grandfather of Kim Jong-un, on April 15 to engage in a show of force to mark the the most important holiday on the North Korean political calendar.
